四月二十六日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/04/0426.mp3″]
经文: 那儆醒……的，有福的。（启示录十六：15）
“我是天天冒死。”使徒保罗在哥林多前书第十五章第三十一节中说道。早期的基督徒无论到何处皆是冒着生命的危险。我们今天不会再经历这种可怕的迫害。即或我们会遇到迫害，主也将赐恩典使我们能承担试验。但是今日在我们基督徒生活中所面临的试验，比起那些愤怒时代中的试验，似乎更能将我们压倒。要我们忍受世人的讥嘲尚且容易。世上的谄媚、甜言密语、和假冒为善则较难抵挡。但我们的危险是在于我们可能致富而变为骄傲，或者接受了现今邪恶世界之价值观而丧失信心。如果财富不能试探你，对世界的关爱也是同样危险的。我们即使不被吼叫的狮子撕扯成碎片，也会被大熊的拥抱致死。魔鬼并不计较采取何种手段，只要能摧毁我们对基督的爱和对祂的信靠祂就喜欢。教会在这些温和平顺的日子中，比起在那些困难的时期，似呼更容易丧失她的诚信笃实。现在我们必须儆醒了。因为我们是行在崎岖的路上。除非我们对耶稣的信心是真实的，对祂的爱如燃烧的火焰，否则我们就会沉睡以至于自我毁灭。在如今不持严谨信仰的世代中，许多自称为基督徒的人有朝一日将被判为稗子而非麦子。基督徒啊，不要以为现在是可以不必儆醒或不必对上帝热心的时刻，反之，现在比过去任何时刻更需儆醒与热爱。但愿永恒的灵在你里面展现祂的全能，使你在此平顺的日子，也和在困难的日子一样，能说：“然而靠着爱我们的主，在这一切的事上，已经得胜有余了。”（罗八：37）
Evening, April 26
Scripture: “Blessed is he that watcheth.”(Revelation 16:15)
“We die daily,” said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not in this day called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test; but the tests of Christian life, at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have to bear the sneer of the world－that is little; its blandishments, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy, are far worse. Our danger is lest we grow rich and become proud, lest we give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world, and lose our faith. Or if wealth be not the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, if we may be hugged to death by the bear, the devil little cares which it is, so long as he destroys our love to Christ, and our confidence in him. I fear me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher times. We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted ground, and are most likely to fall asleep to our own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love to Jesus a vehement flame. Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God. Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display his omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer things, as well as in the rougher, “We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
